Scientists poke and prod at the fringes of habitability in pursuit of life’s limits. To that end, they have tunneled kilometers below Earth’s surface, drilling outward from the bottoms of mine shafts and sinking boreholes […]
Tag: quantamagazine
Paradoxically, black holes, those infamous swallowers of light and matter, also spew light and matter outward with unparalleled might and efficiency. They power thin beams of plasma called jets that extend thousands of light-years into […]
For decades, mathematicians have debated a simple question about graphs and the number of connections they have. Now, using arguments an undergraduate math student could have come up with, Asaf Ferber of the University of […]
The hydra is a simple creature. Less than half an inch long, its tubular body has a foot at one end and a mouth at the other. The foot clings to a surface underwater — […]
The raging bull locked its legs mid-charge. Digging its hooves into the ground, the beast came to a halt just before it would have gored the man. Not a matador, the man in the bullring […]
Last year, just for the heck of it, Scott Field and Gaurav Khanna tried something that wasn’t supposed to work. The fact that it actually worked quite well is already starting to make some ripples. […]
Roughly 500 million years ago, something that would forever change the course of eukaryotic development was brewing in the genome of some lucky organism: a gene called Pax6. The gene is thought to have orchestrated […]
At first, topology can seem like an unusually imprecise branch of mathematics. It’s the study of squishy play-dough shapes capable of bending, stretching and compressing without limit. But topologists do have some restrictions: They cannot […]
Molecular biology has something in common with kite-flying competitions. At the latter, all eyes are on the colorful, elaborate, wildly kinetic constructions darting through the sky. Nobody looks at the humble reels or spools on […]
If you’ve ever taken a math test, you’ve probably met a grazing goat. Usually it’s tied to a fence post or the side of some barn, left there by an absent-minded farmer to graze on […]
Recent Comments